Julianna Nicholson dries her nails as her mother, Lori, watches at the Robin Walter Salon in Ocean Pines.

Written by

Susan Canfora
Delmarva Media Group correspondent

When their 7-year-old daughter talks with an adult air about paleontology and explains rapidly reproducing cancer cells, her parents aren't surprised.

Julianna Nicholson was always an intelligent child, skipping baby talk like "me want ball" and properly telling her parents, "I would like to have the ball, please."

So, two years and four months ago, when the now third-grader was diagnosed with leukemia, Lori and Paul Nicholson didn't withhold information, but explained the illness to their daughter and how doctors would treat it. ...